I was recently asked by a junior high school to support their math teachers to infuse opportunities for movement into their math classes. I've been brainstorming some ideas and I thought I would share them here. I'm including some general routines for including movement in meaningful ways as well as some examples of activities for specific math outcomes. I'm not including generic "brain breaks" or "movement breaks" which are short burst of physical activity designed to energize students.

Math Movement Routines

Stand and Talks from Sara VanDerWerf-Sara describes a tweak to the standard “Think/Pair/Share” routine that has greatly improved the number of students participating in her classroom discussions. This strategy incorporates movement that gives every student a chance to talk out loud and share their ideas without distractions. “Learners, I’d like everyone to stand up. Do not have anything in your hands. No calculators. No notebooks. No phones or pencils. Nothing. In a moment I am going to give you something that I want you to look at with a partner... I want to hear you asking each other things you wonder about. Please go now and find your partner.”

Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces (VNPS) from Peter Liljedahl- Students work in small groups standing at vertical non-permanent surfaces such as chalk boards or dry erase boards around the perimeter of the classroom. This allows the teacher to easily see what each group is working on and encourages discussion. The non-permanent nature of the surface lowers the risk of making mistakes and prompts students to start working faster and persevere longer. Check out posts from Alex Overwijk, Nathan Kraft and Laura Wheeler discussing this instructional strategy.

Math "Scavenger Hunts" / Circuit Training / Around the World - The idea of a math scavenger hunt is that questions are posted on the walls around the room. The answer to each question will lead to the next question. Students move from question to question until they have completed the loop. The activity is self-checking because if students don't find their answer then they know they've made a mistake and need to work to correct it. I've blogged about this activity in the past and have used a number of variations of it. A teacher recently showed me a variation of called Math Stations Maze where the questions are numbered and the multiple choice answers lead to the next station similar to a choose your own adventure novel.

Math Stations - This instructional strategy does not have to be complicated. I've seen teachers successfully push some desks together to make stations and put some math problems at each station. Students work in small groups completing the questions at their station and move to the next station when finished. I like to have one more station than there are groups so that there is always an open station to move to. This helps to minimize wait time between stations. It takes a bit more up front work, but I like to have an add-em up activity at each station so that students immediately know if they've answered the questions correctly. With this type of activity, the sum of the answers to several problem are given. If the students sum is not the same, they know that there is a mistake and work together to find where it is.

Grade 9 PR07 Linear Relations - Barbie Bungee. Students determine a relationship between the number of rubber bands used in a bungee cord and how far a Barbie/action figure will fall. They this use this information to extrapolate how many rubber bands to use for an exciting bungee jump from a set height.

Grade 8 PR01 Linear Graphing - Body Graphing/Algebra Walk. Set up a large Cartesian plane on the ground (outside with chalk or indoor with painters tape). Ask students to choose a spot on the x-axis, (and make sure that some choose negative numbers). Take a portable whiteboard with you (or you could write out some functions on paper in advance), and write a linear function (for example y = 2x + 3). Ask each student walk to their correct (x, y) coordinate given their starting x value. Here is a video from the Teaching Channel demonstrating a similar idea. There is also a description and video of this activity from Martin Joyce (@martinsean).

Grade 8 M03 Surface Area - Cover a filing cabinet with sticky notes to determine its surface area. This is a great 3-Act Math task that you can tackle in your classroom. You just need a healthy supply of post it notes and you estimate and then cover just about any right rectangular prism, right triangular prism, or right cylinder in your classroom or school.

Grade 7 N01 Divisibility - Divisibility Hop. Stations are set up around the room, each with a 3 or 4 digit number. The teacher calls out a number. If students are standing at a station with a number that is divisible by the number the teacher called, they hope to a new station.

Grade 7 N07 Fractions and Decimals - Put(t)ing Rational Numbers in Order. Teams of students work to put rational numbers and decimals in the correct order and then putt a golf ball in the style of the Price is Right television show Hole in One game. You could alter this game to put the rational numbers on cards and deal cards to each person on a team and then they have to stand in the correct order.

Grade 7 PR07 Equations - Linear Equation Groups. Introduce this activity by calling out a small positive integer (for example 3). Students move about the room to form groups of that size. Once students are familiar with this activity, you can call out and/or write a linear equation on the board (for example 2x + 1 = 7). Students solve the equation and then move into new groups of that size.

There are lots of different ways to incorporating movement into mathematics. Do you have additional suggestions of activities or resources for getting your junior high students moving around? Please consider sharing your ideas and I'll add them to this list.